"Hello sir, you like camel safari? Good price! ...Maybe massage, joint...jigi jigi?

Gambo, my dear camel, was the spanking best creature I've ever ridden. He sounded like a dying orc and smelt like the rotting smell of a thousand corpses. Drove about 20 k out of town in a cramped jeep, nearly flipped avoiding some stray cattle, then mounted our beasts for a two hour sesh of groinal pain. The "secluded, ever stretching sand dunes" turned out to be three and a quarter dunes, possibly man made, in the middle of an arid spot not 300m from the road. A few other confused travelers were hidden behind the other dune. Still, nothing could ruin a desert sunset, silhouetted with camels with their legs tied to stop em escaping. Enormous beetles thats only defence was to bury its head in the sand. Our camel boy singing local diddles and James Taylor, drumming on one of those water dispenser tanks. Froze our toes off all night and rose for the sunrise, absolutely gorgeous, in fact so gorgeous that my camera couldn't handle it and decided to "system error".

Took a public bus to Jodpur that afternoon - 7 hours of being stared at while sleeping or questioned as to my marrital status and income. No joke! I asked right back thinking I had him, he told me honestly that he was had been married (arranged) since 17 and made about the equivalent of $800 a year. That shut me up.

Stayed two nights in a quaint little homestay, proud parents of a Bollywood cameraman, treated as family. The fort was the most impressive stone erection I have ever seen. Not to bore you with historical details but you must hear this! It had been built in 1469, had suffered over 200 sieges and had never once been breached! Cool right? Yep.

First night out consisted of this swanky, confusedly jungle/country-western style bar, On The Rocks, where Eva, Janet, Mark and I marved at our guide, Anant's incredible dancing skills. A mixture of "unscrewing lightbulbs" and crumping and moonwalking. Put us all to shame. Took the tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) back on the wrong side of the road. racing an about 60 year old man that I had just seen throwing up in the loo.

Left the dusty yet somewhat dreamlike town after having the best lassi (yogurt, honey and spices) in apparently all of India for Udaipur...where all the laughs began.